New collective agreements blamed for slowdown in resolving pay problems
OTTAWA — Repairing the federal government’s public service pay system is a top priority, the newly minted minister responsible for the Phoenix payroll service insisted Monday, just hours after her department revealed that a backlog of problem pay files has grown over the last several weeks.
“The prime minister has given me, made this a priority for me, in our discussions already and I look forward to being briefed and working to remedy this as soon as possible for public servants who have been waiting so long to get this fixed,” Carla Qualtrough said shortly after being named by Justin Trudeau as public services and procurement minister.
Qualtrough’s appointment came just hours after the department revealed the pay system’s problems worsened since the backlog of improper pay cases was last tabulated July 26, as employees struggled to process changes to civil service contracts.
The number of pay transactions carried out through the Phoenix pay system that went beyond normal processing times increased by 9,000 from that date to 237,000 after two months of decline, according to the newly released figures.